There was a major technical error that was spotted by a poster (thank you and shows including pictures is a good idea) of incorrect tyre fitment..both rear tyres were fitted with their directional arrows going the wrong way
So as was said maybe surprising that the car didn’t spit me off somewhere..shows how important correct tyre orientation is and how well DCS works to keep you on the road despite yourself..I’ve left the original post for completeness…
Here’s the updated summary..
Having had the rear wheels swapped over so they are now directionally correct I took the car out for a noon on some our splendid local roads.
So the handling is much improved…the front end tuck in and rear end slushiness have much reduced.
The traction light does still continues to light up when provoked at higher speeds and accelerating hard but nowhere as much as it did.
Overall I’m still slightly disappointed that my expectations have not been met.
As a winter use especially for a daily I think it’s a great tyre..the grip in damp and cold conditions were good and it’s snow performance all you could ask for, for a sports car..
As an all season tyre for a daily again I think it’s pretty good.
As an all season tyre for a 450nm E89 for hooning around it quickly shows it’s limitations on a dry warm day.
So not as bad as I labelled it..mostly due to incorrect rear wheel fitment…but the search for an all season tyre that copes with 450nm of enthusiastic driving on a warm dry day continues..
Basically its a NO from me for the E89s.
Like many all season and winter tyres actually getting an OE fitment especially on asymmetric wheels is problematical.
I selected 235/45 17 and 245/45 17 to sit on 8J/8.5J rims..there were no 40 profiles in 17"
I selected those sizes to keep within 1% rolling radius as I already knew the the DCS system on the E89 can get confused if there is too big a discrepancy between front and rears.
At the time of fittting in November 2020 we went back into lockdown and hence they had little use in the winter. What use showed great ability to cope with wet/damp/frosty/cold conditions and even in 3" of snow they were not bad (Quaife LSD may have helped too).
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and a slash cut had taken out one of my rear GY Assy 5 rears..broken promises on speedy delivery left me having to put the all seasons back on so I could attend the schedule meeting with the engine tuners to debug a seperate bad misfire in Sunderland.
My 150 round trip is mostly high speed open roads with a few tight hairpins.
So problem one was, once warmed up, the DCS light would start flashing when overtaking and at most speeds north of 'brisk'.
I got round it protem by switching to Sports+ mode which stopped the traction control flight flashing..great in dry sunny conditions but not what you normally want in slipping /poor conditions...
As a by the DCS would cut the power so made overtaking highly amusing..
The other issue is that the tyre can't really cope with the cornering forces on the E89 when used in the appropriate manner.
On entry to sharp bends under braking the front tyres felt that they wanted to fold under..on exit on bumps despite well damped shocks a bit of pogo-ing was apparent.
So as a daily tyre for battling the worst of winter probably great..but not for an E89 using them in dry conditions and pressing on.
In contrast the correct size Conto TS830 pure winter tyres were much much better..but a very bad wear rate when pressed into service on lus 20c days..
